The global barley market is only about one-eighth the size of the corn market but to major exporters (France, Russia, Australia, Canada) and to major importers (Middle East, China), it is a very important crop. Like other commodities, barley prices have been rising. Production fell 6.8 percent this year and global ending stocks are off nearly 22 percent from two years ago. The area harvested to the crop has fallen for two years in a row. Barley will become more important as a cover crop as agriculture seeks to control its emissions, but it is also a crop that thrives in a cooler climate, an environmental condition that is declining. It has substitutes as an animal feed but becomes more precious when turned into beer. The decline in average...
Key Market Insights Macros: Inflation isn’t cooling — it’s moving higher again. March PCE inflation (Personal Consumption Expenditures index — the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation) rose 0.7 percent month-over-month, pushing the annual rate to 3.5 percent, the h...
An amendment to the U.S. House farm bill, aiming to remove the Save Our Bacon Act language in Section 12006 that would have stripped language to prohibit California’s Proposition 12, Massachusetts’ Question 3, and up to 500 state agricultural laws across the country, was blocked by...
WPI has officially launched Transportation Perspectives as a standalone weekly report separate from our Ag Perspectives articles and analysis. Current Ag Perspectives subscribers will have gratis access to the report through 16 April 2026. Please email us or subscr...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.